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It was often said that the most dangerous opponent was one most often under or overlooked. That the ones that seemed bright, and cheery, or overly dangerous might be better than average, but the ones who didn’t stand out were the truly skilled, who blended in, and struck from the shadows.
Pyrrha Nikos didn’t fit any of those standards, but while she was a capable tournament fighter she also wasn’t what was going through Roman’s mind at the moment. She might be later because betting on her fights was almost always a sure fire way to get some extra cash, no matter if they tried to get people to wager on a short, or not.
No, what was going through his mind was the bad feeling he’d been getting ever since he’d first taken this job, a feeling that had even had him call Neo to accompany him.
She’d mocked him, as was per her usual, but had agreed to shadow him, knowing that his hunches were what kept them alive, and in the black.
He really wished he knew who had told him that piece of advice because as he watched his most loyal, and talented henchman be systematically dismantled by a cheery ball of sunshine he wanted to stuff them in a casket and throw away the key. Probably after filling it with cement.
It had started well, at least until one of the idiots he’d hired had tried to rob the current source of his problems. To be fair, he probably hadn’t known she’d be an issue, hell he hadn’t known who she was, and Roman always found it a very fair business practice to keep tabs on where the best hitmen, mercs, and huntsmen were at any given moment.
Her throwing his hired goons through a window? Annoying, but could be dealt with.
Watching her go toe to toe with Neo, and win? That was…not good at all. Neo was a bonafide assassin, and one of the best in the business. He’d seen her go through an entire room of nobodies without breaking a sweat, and now?
He felt irritation at watching the unfolding battle.
Who was she?
Ruby Rose was a perfectly normal girl with perfectly normal knees thank you very much! She also had a scythe that was also a gun! And well she had like a dozen more things, but the scythe was her baby!
Some people liked weapons, but Ruby didn’t like them. Oh no! She LOVED them.
From a young age weapons made sense to her in a way people usually didn’t. They didn’t ask awkward questions, they didn’t expect anything from you, and you could trust them to never fail you. If they did it was probably your fault for not using them right, and you could learn to do better.
It was a great relationship that way!
It turned out that a lot of people were content to make a weapon, kinda understand it, and as long as it worked that was that.
Ruby thought that was silly personally. She needed to know how her baby would perform under any, and all circumstances, and more importantly, how others would.
Other kids read books about history, but she read weapons catalogues, part lists, scientific papers, and journals from huntsmen in the field who had published memoirs.
Her uncle had helped a lot being a willing guinea pig, but he was the best so she wasn’t that shocked.
“So did you make that with an almar wood inlay?” Ruby asked the woman she’d been fighting conversationally. It had taken a lot of practice for her to get used to using her semblance for just a fraction of a moment to dodge an attack, and talk, but her uncle said it would get her cool, and style points so she did it anyway. Even if it had taken like all her time at Signal to even start getting the hang of it.
The woman didn’t answer, merely frowned, and swung the parasol her way as Ruby decided to test her theory, and swung up at just the right spot to…
The weapon handle snapped at the precision strike hit in its weak point, and she nodded. Almar wood it was.
“If that’s the case,” Ruby said as she gained distance with her semblance as the woman growled, and grabbed the knife that had been hidden in her hands, growling silently as she seethed at the annoyance across from her.
“We gotta go, Neo,” Roman whispered to his partner who shot him a look that had him hold up his hands in response. He’d never seen her that mad at him, and didn’t feel all that safe going back with her at the moment. “On second thought a few more minutes won’t hurt, but be quick,” he ordered.
Roman raised his cane, and blinked when he clicked, and nothing happened. “What in the world?”
“Oh yeah? Really cool design, but the R-9 you have woven in for holding flares always gives way when you apply pressure at the right spot so I just took it earlier,” the annoyance said as she held up the flares in her hand.
“Neo,” he said seriously.
She frowned, and made to leave until suddenly she was pushed to the ground, both of them were, as pieces of stones wrapped around them leaving them both trapped in a stone prison.
“Neither of you will be going anywhere,” a new voice said as heels clicked on the rooftop.
“Oh wow, Miss Goodwitch! Can I have your autograph?” Ruby asked seeing one of her favorite huntsmen in the flesh.
“Normally I might decline,” she answered as Ruby deflated. “But seeing as the current situation is well resolved…perhaps an exception could be made.”
“Yes!” Ruby cheered.
Neo, and Roman shared a look. How had they lost to an idiot like that? He should have called Matchstick when he had the chance.
“Goodwitch, and Ozpin invited you to Beacon?” Yang asked, astonished.
“Yeeehuh!” Ruby said excitedly, thrilled she’d be going with her older sister so she’d at least know someone, but…”Are you ok with that?” she asked.
“You act like being around you is a hardship,” Yang commented lightly, cracking open a soda, and raising an eyebrow at her sister who nodded, and so she tossed another one over to her.
“I mean it’s gotta be weird having your kid sister around all the time,” Ruby said.
Yang shrugged, and took a drink of her soda, and winced looking at the expiration date. “I’ve never heard of this flavor.”
“Uncle Qrow gets the weirdest ones,” Ruby agreed. “Sugar though.”
“True that,” Yang agreed, her pointer finger lifting off the can briefly to point at Ruby. “You're fine. I’m more worried about you though. You don’t really do other people,” Yang said gently, but firmly.
“I mean sure, but I want to learn more, and I don’t know what else to do if I stay at Signal.”
“They were running out of things for you to do, huntsman wise at least,” Yang admitted.
“They kinda just kept sending me to Uncle Qrow, or dad for sparring,” Ruby said softly.
“Eh, screw ‘em,” Yang decided. “I’m sure once you get on a team they’ll love you.”
“You’ll be there if I need a breather?” Ruby asked softly, eyes sparkling with a silent plea.
Yang snorted. “Stop using those eyes, cheater,” she playfully ordered. “You couldn’t keep me away anyway,” she assured her.
“Oh no,” Ruby said as they both started to head to the living room.
“What’s up?” Yang asked.
“I forgot to get you a getting into Beacon present! That’s why I went to Vale!”
Yang only laughed. “I forgot to get you one too, so let’s just say we’re even.”
“Really?” Ruby asked as Yang slung an arm around her shoulder.
“Absolutely. You can tell me about the upgrades for my gauntlets you were talking about.”
“I can?” Ruby asked hopefully.
“Sure, but I’m going to do them. It’s my weapon after all, but I promise I’ll come to you if I need help.”
“What do you want in return?” Ruby asked her traitorous sister with narrowed eyes.
“Couple rounds of G-Zero before we turn in?” Yang asked with a tilted head.
“Such betrayal,” Ruby cried out dramatically. “Popcorn?”
“If you help make it,” Yang countered.
“It’s a deal!” Ruby declared as they shook hands, and went back into the kitchen.
Yang paused at the entrance, and smiled seeing her sister at peace. Their family was broken, but it was theirs, and she knew any of them would fight tooth, and nail to keep it that way. She picked up a stray kernel that had missed the stove top, and tossed it at the crow outside the window.
“Stop freeloading,” Yang joked until she heard the door open, and saw their uncle walk in with a few bags of groceries so she looked back outside. That crow didn’t have red eyes. Oops.
“Who are you talking to, firecracker?” Qrow asked.
“Huh…no one. I guess you have an admirer,” Yang teased as Qrow rolled his eyes used to her random teasing by now.
Ruby just excitedly added more kernels to the pot.
Ruby wasn’t entirely sure what to make of her new team. They seemed nice, kind of anyway.
She dodged Blake’s kick, and went back to examining her weapon! That was where she excelled after all!
Blake finally managed to pin her opponent into a corner, and pulled the trigger only for nothing to happen. “What?”
“Oh, yeah. So with that sort of shifting weapon, the bullet magazines can really only be kept in the small groove there at the bottom, you just gotta tap it, and presto,” Ruby said, holding up both her weapons magazines in her hands. “Cool right?”
“...I forfeit,” Blake said as Ruby waved her way, and thanked her for the super fun sparring.
What a weird day.
“Oh, I like that,” Ruby said as she struck at Jaune’s shield with a kick, and nodded. “Right so that’s exactly the way it should be made, but you said it was your family's?” Ruby asked as Jaune nodded warily.
“Y-yeah,” he agreed.
“That’s cool. Always nice to see family stuff getting put to good use, but-” Ruby cut herself off, and fired four straight shots right at him.
Jaune held up his shield, and felt himself almost lose his footing with each one.
“Ok,” Ruby’s voice came again, and Jaune balked, seeing she was already right in front of him. “So your shield can’t take anymore shots in this exact spot, or the bullet will come through, and go right into you. The older shields made didn’t have a great alloy mixture. They were sturdy, but repeated hits weakened them, not usually an issue when you weren’t fighting a sharp shooter… so you can forfeit, or uh, take your chances!” she said brightly.
He gulped seeing exactly where the bullet would hit if she fired. No future for the Arc family if that happened, and went through the shield.
“I-I give up?” Jaune said. It was a testament to brotherhood that not a single male in the audience begrudged him for the forfeit.
Ruby just beamed
Glynda watched as Miss Rose held up a gun barrel she’d snatched from another student rendering said weapon useless, and marked Miss Rose down for another win.
Perhaps she would be better served fighting against the upper years instead?
“Your weapon is so pretty! Super elegant!” Ruby said brightly as Weiss brandished it at her infuriating opponent.
“Thank you,” Weiss growled out as she tried to catch her in a glyph only for her to speed away. She used the brief moment of time to rummage in her pouch, and grab more dust ammunition for Myrtenaster as she popped open the cylinder.
“Oh that’s cool, but-” Ruby’s voice called out as Weiss screeched, seeing her already right next to her. She tried to snap it closed, and swing it toward her opponent only to see the ejector rod, and chamber in her hands. “I think you should get a speed loader.”
Weiss stilled at that. The best smiths in Atlas had made that, and this slip of a girl though…actually. She’d almost intuitively understood it, had taken it apart without causing it permanent damage.
“Speed loader?” Weiss asked.
“Oh, yeah,” Ruby said clearly happy to be ‘talking shop’. “You see you can load them individually, but being able to load them all at once would just save you time in the long run.”
“I suppose it would take some time to get used to it,” Weiss allowed as she looked at her weapon which wasn’t very stable at the moment.
“Nah, you seem really smart,” Ruby praised her as Weiss felt an inkling of pride at that. “So you could get used to it really quick.”
“Thank you. May I?” Weiss asked, holding out her hand for her weapon parts.
“Oh, right. Uh, do you give up?”
Weiss narrowed her eyes, and flourished her weapon toward her. “I am Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee family. I don’t give up!”
Ruby’s eyes gleamed brightly at the challenge! “Awesome!”
“You see…I am not a real girl,” Penny admitted holding out her hands.
Ruby stared in awe as Penny explained.
“You’re perfect,” Ruby assured her breathlessly.
For reasons she didn’t know, or understand, or the knowledge she even could, she blushed as her computer briefly ground to a halt, backup systems required to keep her running without falling over.
Her mind instantly saved this moment to replay thousands of times over the course of her life, and she would never be so grateful to be an android than when she reviewed it.
Her internal memory began searching for, identifying, and cataloging every scrap of information regarding Ruby Rose it could find, making suppositions, and almost subtly rewriting her code. Not in a malicious way, but…well her folder did rename itself to ‘Most Precious Friend’. At least for now.
She had a feeling that might need updating the longer she knew Ruby Rose.